Sorting Shot Bearings

Amid the chaos of wholly unnecessary central heating oil tank replacement (resultant from a neighbour’s vitriolic refusal to accept two independent, qualified reports that the old unit was completely sound and fit for purpose); one's freelance canoe has been paddled with renewed vigour and seemingly positive results. Aside from the usual projects/collaborations, I’ve been weaving through the web's many strands of opportunity, albeit slightly undecided about some.

Anything with the “homeworking” tag targeted specifically at women sets my senses on red alert. For decades this was a euphemism for sweated, piece rate labour that often cost participants more money to acquire the raw materials than they actually made-£5 per thousand envelopes being one of the most commonly advertised lures that springs to mind. 

This appears to have crossed into creative, skilled vocations in recent years- $5 for 1,000 word feature ring any bells among fellow freelancers? Frankly, anyone foolish enough to plunder these depths i.e. willingly compete in such races to the bottom will find precious little sympathy from this corner.  

While shifting half a tonne of new central heating receptacle through the side gate and to its newly set concrete plinth, “Uncle” Benny happened to mention one of his bike’s fit n’ forget square taper bottom brackets had finally turned sloppy, so I agreed to supply and fit a cheap but fairly cheerful Shimano replacement. In this instance we settled upon the Japanese giant's basic UN26 complete with composite sleeves and solid steel axle-£7 inc postage. Removing the resident "Power pro" unit proved less taxing than I thought given a brief blast of penetrant spray inside the seat tube and using sheer leverage from Lezyne's CNC rod.

Despite giving the incoming unit’s threaded sections a liberal slathering of ceramic polymer grease and using precision tooling, these components are decidedly soft and very easily stripped-overcome by applying gentle pulses of super invasive penetrant spray while surreptitiously winding it fully home in gentle bursts.   

No sooner had we everything reinstated and double checked, it became apparent that his entry level road bike’s unit had succumbed to the same fate despite only a handful of rides! Given our experience with the UN26, he’s requested I supply and fit the UN55, whose superior bearings, seals and hollow axle should amass much higher mileages before singing that familiar swansong.

Staying with square tapers, this rather fetching System EX crankset has replaced the cheap but decidedly charming Stronglight ST55. 44 teeth maintain the road sensible 77 inch gearing, eliminating risk of spinning out on the flat or straining on moderate climbs.46/48t are the preserve of track or pancake flat TTs, though supply of 130 BCD fare is reasonable should wear or whim dictate.

At a glance 669g is fairly beefy-less than some super stiff hot forged track models but in keeping with other sub £60 fare and 170mm arms will suit production fixers, conversions or indeed some single/hub gear builds with lower bottom bracket heights since there’s less risk of grounding out when cornering hard.  

Mirror polished finishes are vastly superior to paint and this one should resist the salt monster’s advances for several seasons-longer fed periodic helpings of decent quality polymer car polish. In common with others in this class , detailing's a little workman-like around the inner spider but this isn’t glaringly obvious/likely to prove a deal breaker on trainers/club builds. 

Initial impressions are extremely favourable with excellent power transfer and nominal whip under sprinting or climbing efforts. However, we’re only 50 in to a 300mile plus evaluation for a new consumer focused title, so said remarks must be regarded as formative at this stage.

Rummaging through my spares drawer resurrected these low-profile, dual-sided shop branded Ritchey WCS homages for more convenient getaways and further improved ground clearance.They’re actually rather well made by FTP-another Taiwanese marque, boasting nicely machined, powder coated aluminium bodies, super reliable Cro-moly axles turning on remarkably smooth cartridge bearings. 

Ironically (and this seems true of other patterns) while perfectly accommodating of genuine Shimano cleats, they seem happiest with VP, Wellgo, Btwin and indeed Exustar! On that note, I’m off to pedal my wares and invest further energies into matters marketing/promotional.